ARTS BRIEFING

By Lawrence Van Gelder

Published: June 28, 2004

HIGHLIGHTS

BEST-SELLER FINDS A BRITISH PUBLISHER -- The Craig Unger best-seller ''House of Bush, House of Saud: The Secret Relationship Between the World's Two Most Powerful Dynasties'' (Scribner) has found a British publisher. The book, about the tangled connections between President Bush and his circle and Saudi Arabia's royal family, became a casualty of Britain's tough libel laws earlier this year when Mr. Unger's British publisher, Secker & Warburg, canceled publication, saying it was afraid of being sued. But the book has been picked up by Gibson Square Books, a small concern founded in 2001 by Martin Rynja, and is to be published in Britain next month. Mr. Unger's agent, Elizabeth Sheinkman of the Elaine Markson agency, was quoted by Publishing News as saying: ''Martin has a legal background and has agreed to take full legal responsibility. Craig has also agreed to some changes in the text.''

OPERA: LEAVING SAN FRANCISCO -- Pamela Rosenberg, left, the first woman to become the general director of the San Francisco Opera, has announced that she will leave her post in 2006 despite the company's offer to extend her contract through 2009. Her departure, in the same year that Joseph Volpe plans to step down as general manager of the Metropolitan Opera, leaves two major American companies in need of new leaders. Ms. Rosenberg, 59, who is credited with revitalizing the San Francisco company, thanked it for its offer but said in a letter that as she nears 60 she wants to ''focus more of my creative energy and leadership skills on the development of new productions and new works.'' She added that her separation from her children and grandchildren in Europe was more difficult than she had anticipated. The San Francisco Opera Association said it would begin an immediate search for a successor, The Associated Press reported. Ms. Rosenberg, who had been co-general director of the Stuttgart Opera in Germany, succeeded Lotfi Mansouri in San Francisco in 2001 with ambitious plans to introduce new and recent works to the opera company's repertory. But deficits forced her to retrench, though she has drawn praise for dealing well with the financial situation.

LONDON: REGGAE CONCERT CANCELED -- For the second time in two years, a concert in London by one of Jamaica's leading dance hall reggae stars has been canceled after complaints that his lyrics incited violence against gays, Reuters reported. Ocean, a London reggae club, announced that it had scrubbed a performance by the vocalist Beenie Man, whose real name is Anthony Moses Davis, after discussions with the police and because of ''concerns for public safety.'' The police said they had stopped him at Heathrow Airport after complaints that his show would include homophobic lyrics. ''It was a very informal discussion, and he was not under caution, nor was he arrested,'' a police spokeswoman said. The gay rights group OutRage!, which campaigned against his performance, called the cancellation a ''triumph over homophobia.'' Last year it campaigned successfully against an appearance by the Jamaican dance hall reggae star Bounty Killer, whose real name is Rodney Price.

ART: RENAISSANCE TREASURE FOUND -- A digital camera, thrust inside a hole used by pigeons and shooting blindly, has led an art restoration team to a Renaissance fresco of winged angels hidden from view for more than three centuries in the ceiling of the cathedral in Valencia, Spain. The sound of cooing inside the hole attracted the restorers, who had been fending off the pigeons for more than a month while removing a layer of paint from the cathedral's Baroque dome and hoping to find artwork mentioned in old cathedral records, The Associated Press reported. The Valencia regional government said the camera inserted in the hole by the team leader, Javier Catala, produced images of a well-preserved fresco believed to be more than 25 feet in diameter. The Baroque ceiling was a false ceiling that covered the fresco, commissioned in 1472 and executed by the Italian painters Francisco Pagano and Pablo de San Leocadio. Church records showed that when the painting of winged angels against a starry background was finished in 1481, officials didn't like it and refused to pay the agreed fee.

FOOTNOTES

If the title is ''Let's Put On a Show,'' who is the star? Could it be anyone but the irrepressible Mickey Rooney? Mr. Rooney, left, who was born in Brooklyn on Sept. 23, 1920, and made his stage debut at 15 months and his film debut at 6, plans to appear at the Irish Repertory Theater from Aug. 10 through Sept. 12 in a musical about his life. The show includes Mr. Rooney's wife, Jan Rooney, who will offer a tribute to Patsy Cline. . . . Featuring music by the Cab Calloway Orchestra led by his son C. Calloway Brooks and the Tito Puente Orchestra under the direction of Tito Puente Jr., the Harlem Jazz and Music Festival will celebrate Black Music Month with a salute to swing jazz starting at 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday at Aaron Davis Hall. The program includes tributes to Celia Cruz, Ella Fitzgerald, Benny Goodman, Chick Webb and the Savoy and Palladium ballrooms.

Photos: Thanks to a dusty pigeonhole, a Renaissance fresco, hidden for more than three centuries, was found in a cathedral ceiling in Valencia, Spain. (Report below center.)